Exploring the visitor-based brand equity of the wet tropics of Queensland World Heritage Area

TL;DRAbstract

Protected area brand names provide park management agencies with the means to indicate site quality level to potential visitors. The World Heritage brand is the premium protected area brand and when used as a marketing tool should have considerable commercial value; yet, when used as a management tool some of this impact can be lost. This paper examines a number of issues regarding the World Heritage brand using a case study approach. The Wet Tropics of Queensland World Heritage Area, located in far northeastern Australia, is the focus of the study. The paper investigates visitor awareness of both the World Heritage and Wet Tropics of Queensland brands based on 279 self-completing visitor questionnaires collected over a four month period in 2008. Findings indicate only 13.3% of visitors demonstrated ‘top of mind’ awareness that the Wet Tropics of Queensland was a World Heritage Area without a strong memory cue and only 0.7% of recognized the World Heritage emblem. None of the visitors

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